It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Anthony Bailey **Edderiofer He **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **James Sinnett *M. Sean Molley *
Adam Weaver *
Bryce Herdt **
Chris Hendricks **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #139

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 4 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1 Ray of stand-up / 4 years, for Obama
2 Shorten, as a dictionary / Kerfuffle
3 Loose rope / The Atlantic, for one
4 ____ depravity / Peter of Casablanca
5 Antagonistic / "I ____ with my little eye. . ."
6 Singer with the albums 19, 21, and 25 / Sicko director Michael
7 It might be transmitted via a snake bite / Pleasant sight to a desert traveler
8 Jamaican music genre / Claw-like appendages
9 Item for a football player, but not a soccer player / Barbara of I Dream of Jeannie
10 Disinclined, as to risk / Replete (with)

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Feature of some fonts
* Striped giraffe relative
* Played a role
* ____ icebox pie
* Gantry of a Sinclair Lewis novel
* "Duly ____"
* Word following "crown" or "pot"
* Instrument played while sitting
* Safe place
* "____ the rainbow" (Skittles slogan)
* Madagascar day ____
* Upsets
* Big Bird's teddy bear
* Song from The Sound of Music
* Use a razor
* Papas of Zorba the Greek
* Bullwinkle, for one
* ____ Your Luck (game show on which Michael Larson gained infamy)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* Another installment of Foxgeryptics!
* Patron Puzzle #20, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is Faley Fun Pack. This trio of small puzzles inspired by Ryan Faley (Word Sandwiches, Sudokurossword, and Chain Reaction: Missing Links) will give you many minutes of fun!

Five days ago, I posted the results of my Shipping Pearls contest. Since then, I have found another entry in my Gmail spam folder, shown below, which arrived in time to be included but which wasn't, for obvious reasons. It has been posted now. Fortunately, the outcome of the contest was not affected.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Anthony Bailey **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **
Adam Weaver **
Bryce Herdt **
Eitan Cher **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #138

HEX PATHFINDER 7 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

The answers in the crossword below are clued alphabetically by length; you must figure out where they belong. The unclued shaded entries will spell a clue to the final answer.

3 LETTERS
Mathematician Lovelace
Pale ____Da ____ G Show (2000-2004 Sacha Baron Cohen series)
An energy drink brand
Common bank fixture: abbr.
Champing at the ____
Animal which the Pokémon Persian resembles
A member of a Disney septet
Electric ____
Living planet in Marvel comics
What clocks in Panama are set to: abbr.
Receive
George Gershwin’s brother
Stick in the ____
The loneliest number, as per Three Dog Night
Tear
Used a sofa, perhaps
Stereotypically British drink
“. . . ___ will be done. . .”
Card

Four weeks ago, I challenged my readers to an optimization task involving writing a Masyu whose unused cells form a Battleships solution. 12 people have entered this contest; their entries are collated here.

Two entries tied for the lowest score of 807; the winner, as decided by random.org, is Robert Vollmert! He will receive a copy of my upcoming Grandmaster Puzzles e-book when it is released. In the meanwhile, I will also give him a copy of both issues of Fox & Badger Magazine so far, previously only available to Patreon supporters!

[Edited on 2016-12-23 to add an entry from Philipp Weiß, which was received before the deadline, but ended up in my spam folder and went unnoticed. Since Philipp did not get a winning score, the outcome of the competition was not affected.]

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Anthony Bailey **Edderiofer He **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **
Bo Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #136

SECTION SIX 13 (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Anthony Bailey **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **M. Sean Molley *
Bo Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #137

MISSING LINKS (hint)

As of this writing, a number of people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Jack Bross.
In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries. Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:Anthony Bailey *Edderiofer He **Giovanni Pagano **Jack Bross **
Adam Weaver **
Bryce Herdt **
Chris Hendricks **
Ryan Faley **
Walker Anderson **
Yossi Fendel **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #135

PENT WORDS 27 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 people have solved this puzzle from last week. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #136

SECTION SIX 13 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved this puzzle from last week. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patronGiovanni Pagano.
Write words in the blanks, one letter per square, so that every pair of consecutive words, reading from left to right, forms a compound word or a phrase. The highlighted squares will spell two more words; the final answer is the two-word phrase that goes between those words.

Support me on Patreon!

If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.